nfreeman

I'd much rather see VO in Skinner's spot than Mitts.

I think the bolded is true regarding this season, but for his 1st 2 seasons, the sins were of omission IMHO. In 2020-21, he didn't upgrade in net and went into the season with Ullmark and Hutton -- even though Hutton was clearly not an NHL goalie at that point and Ullmark was very much unproven. It was even worse in 2021-22 -- despite finishing 2nd-last in goals against the previous year, and losing Ullmark, all KA did was add the elderly Craig Anderson and a bunch of Tokarski-type AHL journeymen. I could be wrong, but I don't remember the Sabres being in on any Matt Murray-type deals in those 2 offseasons where KA was clearly trying to bring in legit goaltending but the deals were vetoed by a goalie with a NTC. Great post, as always, and I largely agree, but with one quibble: KA has been the GM for 166 games now -- 56 in 2020-21, 82 last year and 28 this year. So 3 offseasons and 2+ regular seasons worth of games. I guess I just think at this point, there are very few guys on D or in net that would represent a difference-making upgrade and are available, and, of those, most or all wouldn't be interested in coming here. That may change by the deadline or next offseason, but in the meantime, I'm not interested in committing term to a guy who isn't a real difference-maker.

Well, that was a disappointing home-and-home. They could've gotten to Deluca .500 but instead are a solid 4 games under. Lose another 2 or 3 in a row and the deficit will be impossible to overcome. Their next 5 are: vs LA at Colorado at AZ at Vegas home vs TB That's 4 good teams plus AZ, who they've already lost to this season. If they go 2-3, they'll be 5 under. 1-4 and they're 7 under and the season is over, again, before New Year's. OTOH, if they can deep and go 3-2, they'll be 3 under Deluca .500 with the next 2 at CBJ and home vs Detroit. If they can win those 2, they'd then be 1 under, going into a road game on Dec. 31 vs... Boston! How'd you like to beat the Bruins and have a few pops on NYE knowing that you're starting 2023 at Deluca .500, you've started to beat the good teams and you're very much alive for the playoffs? It could happen.

I’m sort of between option 2 and option 3. If we get to New Year’s and the Sabres or five or six below Deluca .500, and goaltending and defense depth are still major issues, and activity has occurred around the league involving those positions, I will firmly be in option 3 territory. He will not have done enough to help the team, pretty much by definition.

Starting to get classic Buffalo sports weekend vibes with the Sabres getting swept and exposed by Pittsburgh. Rescue us Josh and Stefon!

Oh goody. You've graced us with yet another pointless, small-minded and unnecessary shot at other posters that is neither clever nor witty. How superior of you. Mitts did what nobody else has been able to do lately: shut down TT's line. In all seriousness, I really think Mitts just does not understand the time and space that are available to him in NHL games. Time after time tonight I watched him fight hard for pucks but move the wrong way. He doesn't move towards open space. He moves towards traffic. I want to see VO with TT and Tuch next game. Otherwise we'll see the top line get shut out again. Dude.

The suspension is a bummer, but as others noted in the GDT, it's about time the Sabres inflicted some punishment for taking liberties with their goalie. Danny Gare, a somewhat comparable player to Skinner, would've done the same thing.

I really don’t think AZ will do a deal that doesn’t bring back a first rounder in 2023.

IMHO, Mitts' money maker is his hands. When he has time and space, he can make a very nice pass or deke a goalie and finish. The problem is that the rest of his game doesn't give rise to enough opportunities for him to have the puck with time and space. I think he needs 2 linemates who play a good forecheck/possession game and he needs more experience to develop that part of his game. At present he doesn't seem to know where to go in the O-zone -- unlike someone like Quinn, who always seems to be in the right spot -- and with linemates who don't compensate for this weakness, the result is that when Mitts is on the ice and the puck goes into the O-zone, the opponents have a ridiculously easy time getting it back out and going the other way. Hockey IQ seems like a difficult thing to develop, so I'm kinda skeptical, but I also want to give him some time. His NHL career to date has been managed by terrible coaching for the first few years, then missing most of last year with injury.

Excellent post, as always, by @Taro T. I don't think TT-like development for Mitts is realistic but it's still quite possible that he could develop into a quality 3C or third-line winger. Mitts is under contract at a reasonable $2.5MM cap hit this year and next. That gives the Sabres plenty of time to try to develop him and make a decision on him. No one is going to give them anything for him in trade, so it's not like they are passing up good assets by hanging on to him. By the end of this year, they'll have more info on him, as well as on Asplund, Krebs and the other young forwards in the system (Savoie, Kulich, Rosen, Rousek, Cedarquist, etc.) and their viability as NHL players next year. We'll see.

I agree that if KA throws enough assets at someone, he can get a goalie. That still leaves 2 key questions though: - is that goalie an upgrade over what they have now? - does that goalie want to be here? If the answer to either of those questions is "no," then KA isn't interested -- and I'd guess that the answer to one of those questions has been "no" in just about every situation. Now, if the Sabres get to Deluca .500, start filling the arena and keep winning 9-4 games against crappy teams and losing 6-5 games to cup contenders, I can see a good goalie who previously didn't want to be here changing his mind, since the Sabres would be a playoff bubble team that offers a goalie plenty of scoring support and an exciting arena. But I don't think we are there yet.

You mean ppl?

It's not a small risk. Bob turns 35 in September, so you'd be taking on his age 35, 36 and 37 seasons. They have cap space now, but that's before Cozens and Dahlin get what will presumably be big contracts. Most importantly, he appears to be in decline, possibly steep decline. His SV% for the last 7 years is .921%. In the last 3 full seasons, it was .900, .906 and .913, and .880 in 13 games this season.

They are 2 games under Deluca .500 and about to play home-and-home vs Pittsburgh, which has won 3 in a row and are 8-1-1 in their last 10. Pittsburgh is 9th in the NHL in goals for but middling in goals against. If the Sabres can sweep a good, experienced, well-balanced, mentally tough team led by an all-time great who is still one of the best players in the NHL and get to Deluca .500 -- it will officially be ON. OTOH, if they lose both, they'll be back to 4 games under and the playoffs will get a bit harder to imagine. UPL -- here is opportunity.

Not interesting. Knock it off.

Jacob Markstrom -- drafted in 2008 -- 1st year as a starter: 2017-18 Darcy Kuemper -- drafted in 2009 -- 1st year as a starter: 2018-19. Jack Campbell -- drafted in 2010 -- 1st year as a starter: 2021-22. Linus Ullmark -- drafted in 2012 -- 1st year as a starter: 2021-22 (41 starts). Ville Husso -- drafted in 2014 -- 1st year as a starter: 2021-22 (40 starts). Ilya Sorokin -- drafted in 2014 -- 1st year as a starter: 2021-22 ...and none of them was stuck behind Hellebuyck. I think the conversation has shifted a bit here. I was responding to your assertion that KA hasn't shown that he can capably evaluate goalies -- not to your subsequent assertion that, at this point in time, he hasn't adequately addressed the goalie position. Of course if we take a snapshot right now, the goalie situation is, as a factual matter, inadequate, as the goalies are an unproven, shaky rookie and the oldest guy in the league. The point is that taking a snapshot at this moment is a silly and purely academic exercise -- we can't evaluate whether the goalie situation has been adequately addressed by KA until we can evaluate Comrie, i.e. KA's primary means of addressing it. If you want to jump to the conclusion that Comrie's failure to seize a starting job prior to this year means that he won't be able to handle the top job with the Sabres, and therefore that KA has failed to adequately address the goaltending, you are of course free to do so. I will also say, again, that at the end of the day, Comrie's injury, Samuelsson's injury, other injuries, the disinclination of most of the league's players toward coming here, etc. -- none of it in any way reduces KA's accountability for the team's results. He is 100% accountable, including for failure to secure good goaltending if that's how this plays out. My point is simply that we don't know yet how it will play out, since Comrie has only played 11 games here.

Except that no such evidence exists. Before this season he started a total of 28 games, and the bulk of his career was spent behind a no-BS elite goalie in Hellebuyck. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Also, if we're going to start "haha"ing at each others' posts, the quality of the dialogue here will be greatly diminished. There are very few opinions here that are laughably wrong or illogical, and I'm pretty confident that you've contributed your share, just like the rest of us.

Yes -- I noted the use of "thus far" in my post, as part of my comment on how its usage, and the analysis it implies, is logically a bit lightweight IMHO when applied in this context. That logic would've similarly been lacking if, after Comrie's 1st 3 starts of the season, when he was 2-1 with a .930 SV% against 3 good teams, posters had been claiming that "thus far, it looks like KA has a good eye for goalies." (Although I'm fairly confident that posters did express similar thoughts.)

Well, yes. Similarly, you could also say that thus far he has failed to build a playoff team -- but since we are 25 games into this season, one could also argue that the results are incomplete. Again, Comrie was brought in to be the #1 this season. He played 11 games and got hurt. If you still want to say that KA failed to adequately address the position, without waiting to see how Comrie does over the course of the season -- presumably by failing to bring in a 2nd starter-quality goalie who could pick up the reins when Comrie went down -- I suppose that is technically true, but also kinda unrealistic and jumping to conclusions IMHO.

I'm not sure where you're going with all of this. I think we can be pretty confident that KA tried to sign Ullmark, Murray and Gibson. Of those 3, 2 of them are looking quite good this year, while one is not. When those 3 rejected the Sabres (despite certain posters' certitude that bringing players to Buffalo who have other options isn't difficult), he brought in Comrie on a show-me deal. Comrie looked pretty good to start the season, then had a few shaky outings, which coincided with the team overall playing poorly during their lengthy losing streak, then got hurt. He's played a total of 11 games in Buffalo -- hardly enough of a sample size to arrive at any conclusions. As for UPL, he's 23 and has played a total of 18 NHL games, including 5 this year. The plan was for him to develop and play 50-60 games in Rochester this year, with perhaps a few in Buffalo. He hasn't looked good in Buffalo this year but again -- very early and very small sample size. So, if your point is "KA's ability to choose good goalies is uncertain" -- I'll say OK, that's fair enough. But I don't think it's fair to say "KA has shown that he's unable to evaluate goalies," if that was your point. More data is needed.

I could be wrong, but I think his contract is structured such that the cap penalties are unmanageable if they keep him for less than 3 seasons. He's an elite athlete who seems to be a pretty driven guy. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he plays well in the playoffs next year and very well in the RS and playoffs the following year. Let's hope so.

Well, many people here might think that this was KA's plan, but we really have no idea -- and there is evidence to the contrary in KA's pursuit of Murray and Gibson.

Dammit. That is a huge blow. He is such a difference-maker. So best case now is getting him back for the playoffs next season?

Does anyone have an injury update on Lyubushkin?

They are 3 games under DeLuca .500. If they don’t fall any further, and rip off a 4-game winning streak, they will be solidly in playoff contention.